A Retired Army Officer Considers Buying His First Gun

I am a retired career US Army infantry officer who saw service with the 82nd Airborne Division (The All-American Division) and the 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One).

My military sources, both on active duty and retired, tell me that the US Govt is stockpiling small arms ammo in many locations throughout the country. I’m also aware that many oaths taken by officers and NCOs on active duty today often have the phrase, “Against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC” removed from the swearing-in. The removal of AND DOMESTIC is to create an officer corps that believes it cannot speak out against domestic terrorism perpetrated by its own government.

I have contacts in both the Air Force and Army who have told me you cannot talk of gun ownership while at work, cannot give your opinion of the goings-on of our government, and all typically attend monthly classes where they’re indoctrinated with the latest politically correct position of the government (trans-gender acceptance is now the big deal and classes are being taught on it).

Worst of all, the buzz around the military is that our government is purposefully stirring up race-relation problems in order to be able to call martial law in order to shut down the polls (i.e. if Trump wins).

I do not own a privately owned weapon of any sort; an antique revolver from 1908 being my only piece. I am, however, due to all of the above, considering purchasing a handgun and a long-arm of some sort. I’m well trained on the AR-15, so might go that route.

I fear for my own welfare, the safety of my wife, and most of all my God-given liberties. I really don’t have any other choice but to get armed and to be prepared when the government I swore allegiance to considers coming after me and my fellow patriots.

I swore allegiance one thing in my oath taken as a 2LT- I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Notice I did not swear allegiance to any specific government of anti-Constitutionalists; which is who is running this country today. Sic Semper Tyrannis !!

I suspect this is fake as well. How many times over the past 8 years have mysterious posters online have claimed to be a “member of DHS” or “retired secret service”, claiming to know the location of secret concentration camps, piles of coffins, UN troop movements, secret civil war training, or elaborate plans to cleanse the global population and start a new global Nazi Ayran Race that dominates the world and is headquartered in the Denver airport. Every 3-4 months it seems to pop up yet never materializes.

Mr. Brown, as a former army NCO, also with the 82nd (4th BCT) and 1ID(Devil Brigade), I would like to remind you of the Code of Conduct, with the hope that you find both strength and direction in it.
“I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America.”

“I’m also aware that many oaths taken by officers and NCOs on active duty today often have the phrase, “Against all enemies, foreign AND DOMESTIC” removed from the swearing-in. The removal of AND DOMESTIC is too create an officer corps that believes it cannot speak out against domestic terrorism perpetrated by its own government.”

With the possible exception of Bradley Manning, can anyone name a time when US soldiers have ever upheld their oath to defend against domestic threats? If they did, almost every politician would be in a cell.

What is it with you and this desire to see every member of congress walked out of the capitol in handcuffs by military personnel? I get it, all politicians suck, but the historical aftermath of such an event rarely brings about more freedom and liberty than existed prior. The founding fathers warned us of what happens when standing armies are given too much domestic power, and your coup fantasy sounds like the perfect way to hand ours the keys to the city outright. You sure you wanna roll those dice?

I’m just pointing out that military worshipers are full of shit. They claim that the oath makes them “the good guys”, yet you get furious when I point out that none of them have ever upheld their oath.

Don’t blame me because soldiers won’t do their duty to protect our freedom and instead are the force actually violating our rights. Remember, politicians can’t do anything without police and soldiers willing to kill anyone who disobey.

I’m saying that the people who take an oath to hold politicians accountable should actually hold them accountable. Your way has seen the entire US keep losing more and more freedom for generations because politicians don’t have any accountability. But you think cowards who kill for corrupt politicians are above reproach, so of course you’d be upset about someone expecting them to uphold their oath.

I would avoid the use of the word “fear.” I would recommend not responding in the affirmative if your primary care physician, or his/her assistant, asks if you have weapons or have any type of “fear”.

The Left says that Donald Trump said that the 2nd Amendment people could do something about Hillary, I don’t believe that violence is what DJT meant, but I believe the Left is signaling that it is their hope that someone can gin up an armed civilian uprising against her. I think it’s the lib_prog_comm (D) voters that are the real problem.

WTF ever, we shall see.

[Go get some powder] Keep your powder dry. Go get your musket (FDE MagPul furniture is lovely this time of year).

This always struck me a weird reason to own a firearm. Or do do anything for that matter, the whole “OMG, society is collapsing!” thing. That, to me, turns gun ownership into work. I hate work. I don’t do it unless I have to.

Guns for me are fun. A metric shit ton of fun. I train a few minutes of handling and dry fire everyday and run a high ammo count class as least once a month focusing on different things because I love to. Because I want to. Because I smile every minute I’m on gun regardless of how many instructors are yelling at me.

If I were to wrap gun ownership up into surviving at all costs or holding back rampaging hordes of miscellaneous lefties I’d grow to resent my guns which means never training with my guns which means should I ever need to use my guns for reasons other than recreation I’d be at a disadvantage.

But, somebody out there may be motivated by the end of the world the way I’m motivated by fun so to each his own and contrary to anti belief the more guns on the street the better.

Freshly minted wingnuts are more frightening than those living in their bunkers right now.

Guns are a hoot. But as inanimate objects with no mind or soul, mr. Army man would do better to get involved with local civic and preparedness projects rather than sitting in his deep dark man cave listening to rush and Shawn and Glenn all day long. Soon this dude witll have the same soul as a gun, and less of its value.

Good Officers LEAD or COMMAND. If they’re firing weapons they aren’t leading or commanding. Exceptions for Infantry lieutenants, which I was ‘way back when Moby Dick was a minnow. Most officers were only issued pistols, defensive weapons, in recognition of this.

But otherwise, just about all able bodied persons should own and train with personal weapons. We ARE the militia.

Mr. Brown, while vigilance is always important, do not let it turn into paranoia. Arming yourself is a good idea just like having a fire alarm, being prepared for a natural disaster and wearing your seatbelt when you drive. Better to be prepared in case something happens.

The government is not coming to get you. This is not Turkey with a long history of one coup after another. If you would like to do something, then vote, get involved in your local government. Participate and follow the path to become a delegate for your chosen political party. If everyone would get involved, we would have a better government that we no longer have to fear.

Democracy requires that everyone is forever vigilant about their representatives and that one works hard to elect.those who represent your values. Freedom is not free and Democracy requires sweat and toil to make sure you get what you want.

I have been to my state capital to testify and have felt the spit on my face from anti-gun supporters who have called me “baby killer” to my face because I was coming to testify for my 2nd A rights. It would be SO MUCH easier if everyone would take the time to do so and we outnumbered the other side 10:1

At a minimum, join and get involved in the NRA or other national or state level pro-gun rights group. Don’t just send in a donation, actually get involved. Is there a pro-gun politician in your area? Great, go work the phone banks to get out the vote. Don’t like the phone, walk through the neighborhoods and meet and greet people and tell them your views and why they should vote for your guy.

Turn whatever energy you have in your fear into action and get involved. This is a cultural and political war that will not be won with bullets but with ballets. Let the other side yell about the NRA, while we have ground swell of grass roots support. One village, one hamlet one town at a time. Can’t be done? Look at NY State. Look at the major in roads that have been made at the local level. There is a huge chance in the next few years that much of the state will be represented by Republicans. Manhattan will never be, but it is not required.

After 13 years as a Marine enlisted and an officer, I left the Corps not wanting to touch another armament. That served be well for 20 years. Then Sandy Hook. It wasn’t the murders than concerned me, it was the response of legislators that horrified my core. The idea that we would infringe on the second amendment and subvert the Constitution, the parchment I and millions of other swore on our lives to protect, is unconscionable. Bought my first handgun, then two others and a modern musket. Hope I’m not required to use them.

How does a person live long enough to become a “retired Army Officer” and not own a firearm to protect himself and his family? Has this person been living under a rock? “Never leave your cave without your club” Mark Walters Armed American Radio

Would describe most REMFs (and all AF/Navy types who wouldn’t know from which end the pointy things emerge from). They regarded a rifle (or a 45/M9) as a PITA it be handed off/turned in ASAP. To be honest the REMFs who DIDN”T see things the same were the oddballs.

As a sailor who got out 2 yrs ago. I came closer to combat dealing with Iranians than all of my Marine friends. With that being said I knew alot of sailors who were very passionate about forearms, myself included. Trust me, many of us know what the pointy end does. I never had to fire on the enemy, and it helped that there were a few hundred thousand tons of warships with us, but I’ve been within 500m of Iranian gun boats filled with rockets and machine guns, and one wrong move by either side would have ended in a shift but violent clash of weaponry.

For those of you who say don’t worry, be happy, look up cognitive dissonance.

Took me a long time to try to understand it.

In this case, the closer you get to an unpleasant event, the more you are in denial and say/think “don’t worry”.

Sort of like the German Jews who were veterans and awarded valor medals in WWI. They never thought the Fatherland would send them to the ovens. The first step was registration, then seizure of firearms. After that it was easy.

Look at history. Each generation has faced a totally different world. The corruption in this country is rampant amongst politicians, both Dems and Repubs.

The chairman of Hillary’s presidential campaign (Podesta) “earned” $35 million from a Russian deal, and the press says Trump is tied to Russia?

Watching the efforts of the left, the rhetoric and tactics they are using, is a bit unnerving. It’s like a cross between the 30’s and the 60’s. It may or may not happen here. But anyone who thinks “it can’t happen here” is a fool. People are people, and the fundamental psychology of a species changes on an evolutionary time scale.

Yes, there are people who want to rule us. Yes, they are perfectly willing to violate fundamental human rights and commit mass murder to achieve more power. They’ve told us that repeatedly (from the Weathermen estimating they would need to kill about 20 million Americans to make their communist revolution stick to Will Smith casually calling for a “purge” of people who support Trump). If they think for a second that they can get away with it, they’ll try. They have been laying groundwork for more than 100 years.

I don’t think they have the control and support they need to pull it off right now, but I certainly wouldn’t dismiss the possibility.

I just see fudd here. Get a dang gun and quit whining ex-military dude. Your opinion has no more value than mine. I have an ex Army son who’s more or less an anti-2A guy. And I don’t value his op at all…

I’m also a little skeptical. Having recently taken the Oath myself, I can say with certainty that the “foreign and domestic” phrase is still part of it.

I’m all for retired officer Brown getting a firearm, training with it, and otherwise exercising his Second Amendment rights. However, this post does seem a little paranoid, putting a lot of stock in unreliable, anecdotal stories about the government trying to impose martial law.

Well, the usual qualification to be an officer is to have a college degree (yes, there are a myriad of other methods, but most of those require some historical proof of competence or intelligence). They don’t care from what school or what the field of study is.

I’m calling BS. They have not removed or altered the oath and this guy retires after 20+ and then decides to “buy a gun”. If we do have issues its because of weak ass leadership with liberal mentalities like this within the ranks of the military!
“His sources” are full of it.
I’m not saying that there isn’t a need to be prepared nor armed in fact just the opposite but be careful of titles and inflammatory Bravo Sierra from attention getting wanna bees with agendas of their own

Having last been on active duty in 1991, I cannot comment on the officer corps of today’s Army. However, when I was in uniform, politics and political discussion were no-go areas for officers. I was raised in an Army family and my father, uncles and grandfather were serving officers and always drilled into me that politics had no place in the Armed Forces.

From the outside, politics and political correctness seem to be very high priorities for the current military. And they seem to be perfectly free to express political views, as long as those views are in line with current leftist dogma.

I left the USMC in 1993 and I had the same experience: Discussing politics was absolutely not acceptable by officers.

I came back in the USMCR in 2004 after the war started up and was shocked at how many officers regularly talked politics with enlistedmen, and not just with senior enlisted, but with the lowliest of privates. It was something I never got comfortable with. I just retired recently and I have to say that it only got worse in the past 12 years.

I’ve witnessed a dozen or so commissioning, promotion, and re-enlistment ceremonies in the last 10yrs, a couple as late as last month. I’ve been stationed all over CONUS while at these events. Every single one used the traditional oath. His oath changes statement is BS.

His comments on firearms talk in the workplace is also BS. It’s one of the hobbies that most of the unit always enjoys. We talk guns, 2A politics, host shooting gatherings at friends places, etc. I’ve attended at least 30 gatherings of 10-50 people at a shooting range (off base) across 3 states that were all military and their families, both AF and Army friends.

RF, this post was a waste. The historical pieces from the last couple days were outstanding.

So much fail in that post. Reads like a guy who lives in a bunker and believes everything he reads and hears. Not gonna take it apart point by point but one thing really stood out is his assertion that the Officers and NCOs oaths have been changed to delete certain phrases. I’d like to see some proof of that since the oath is defined by statute (U.S.C 5, sect 3331 and U.S.C. 10 sect 502) and I’m hip-deep in 2LTs and enlisted folks who don’t recall any deletions.